Tomorrow is Lunar New Year. The first day of the Wood Dragon. Today is the last day of the Water Rabbit. And he/she will not be back for another 60 years.
To all my Asian friends:
For the story on how the Cat got out of the Bag read an interview that was published to day in the local Gig Harbor paper. I am very grateful to the author, Chapin Day, because he understands what drives me and what I’d like to preach. He is a sailor himself. Until now I would describe my pulpit sermons here as what Jezus went through in Nazareth, “Not a prophet in my home port” Luke 4:24.
I dropped a teaser in my two previous blogs that I am looking for an other boat for a new adventure.
It is still in the form of my dream world. But dangerous enough. A few dreams in my life have come true and many prayers have been answered. Like the one that started as “Around the World before Eighty Years” which ended up as “at Eighty” instead of “before Eighty”.
The new slogan is “at Ninety Years”.
The oldest person who solo circumnavigated, is Harry L.Heckel,Jr., he did his first Westward and finished it at 78, the second one was started at age 78, an eastward voyage, and finished at age 89 in 2005. He wrote a very interesting book about both voyages “Around the World in 80 Years”. I read the book last November. I had always assumed that he had started at an older age. I will be 87 at the end of the month. My plan is to cannibalize/sacrifice part of my first circumnavigation. The part from the Puget Sound to Fort Lauderdale I sailed in 2016 when I was 79 and finished at 80.
The good thing about this is that I might never be beaten in my living years. Harry Heckel passed away February 7th, 2014 at age 97. The youngest sailors records keep being broken through the rest of their lifes….
That is why I am looking for “Fleetwood IV” on the Atlantic Coast or Great Lakes. And sail East through the Med and Suesz canal, after the Houthis have cleaned out.
My wish and prayers are for another multi chined plywood boat like my two NAJAs. I absolutely believe that this is the easiest boat to sail for an old man. Because of the light displacement and better speed than a fiberglass boat. If I can find one elsewhere I may sacrifice the route for it.
But first I have to get “Fleetwood III” sail/sale ready and find a good home for it in the Netherlands. Keeps me in shape.
I’m leaving today on the train to Eugene to meet friends and spend part of Lunar new Year and most of Super Bowl Sunday with my youngest son Seth and his wife in Roseburg, Or. And catch the night train to the S.F. Bay area. From there onto las Vegas to be with my oldest son and his wife and her daughters. Next onto Southern California, Texas and my 2nd home in Cape Charles, Va. Back in Amsterdam on Maudy Thursday.
Lisa moved from Federal Way to Puyallup on the 1st of the month. Good move. I went to my new parish at All Saints here, on Sunday. Very well attended and many young families. But I will miss the friends I made in Federal Way at St. Theresa parish. The group of friends from this church with whom Lisa and I have helped out at the feeding of the homeless in Seattle, with Cate’s Cate-Ring service will continue with Lisa and my occasional visits back to the North West. Cate and Gabriel gave me an early birthday/sendoff party on Sunday.
Mango Cake by CateHardly a dull day this coming week, hungover on Monday from the Super Bowl party and on Ash Wednesday/Valentines Day from Mardi Gras. “Laisses les bon temps rouler”
And to all the Girls I love and Loved Before. 
